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Author
Topic: How To Make A Holiday (Read 411 times)

As the holiday season approaches, there are far too many people who face the prospect of being alone during the holidays. For so many, the holiday season can represent an especially hard time of year and given the current state of affairs, there are untold numbers who will face the season alone. I live on a fixed income, so I understand the challenges of squeezing anything extra at the end of the month, but I am going to ask anyway.

I am asking for anyone who can, to reach out and for one person or family, help them to make a holiday. Living with HIV is damn hard and we all know pozzies who could use a nice holiday season. Look around and find someone to help, because even $20 can provide an incredible holiday for someone who has very little. Maybe you can invite a friend from a support group or your clinic, to dinner one night. Sponsor a pot-luck dinner for those who are alone at the holidays. Or contact your local Aids Service Organization and see if they can match you up with someone for the holidays.

Or what if you could give someone Christmas? You can and quite easily. Again, your ASO may have programs or my favorite, when I was employed, was to contact a woman’s crisis center and become a Secret Santa. There is so much need and by offering something, anything, to folks down on their luck, will return you untold riches. By your giving, you show that you care and that you understand and keep the holiday spirit. Through your gift, whatever it may be, you may provide to someone, an opportunity to have a once in a lifetime holiday, which can be very easy, when you have relatively nothing.

For those who share a fixed income, you can still bring holiday cheer by donating your time. Volunteer for an organization, or ask about local needs. When I lived in Detroit, I would volunteer at a soup kitchen between Christmas and New Year’s. The amounts of need were heart-wrenching, yet even those with almost nothing, still held the holiday spirit. They delighted in the simplest things, like my refilling their coffee, while wearing reindeer antlers and reindeer earrings. Where you might expect to find hearts hardened by adversity, you would find some of the most generous people in the world.

On Christmas day, I would take about $20 in half-dollar coins. After asking the parents, I would offer one to each child. Since the coins were not that common, their eyes would widen and then widen further, when they we told that this was real money. I would simply walk the line of folks waiting to get served and bring just a little magic into my part of the world. Total cost: $20 and many fun-filled hours helping others to make a holiday. Benefits: priceless!

So if you can, please find some time over the holidays, to spread some holiday cheer. There will always be those in need and the holiday season can be one of the most difficult times of the year. Please reach out to someone and help them to make a holiday.